Tariq Al Mubarak, a columnist and high school teacher based in Riyadh, was detained since the 27th of October for helping and supporting the Oct26th Women Driving Campaign. This is the lastest article he wrote for Al Sharq Al Awsat and published the day before he was arrested:
After the events of 9/11, a growing number of Americans became too afraid to board airplanes and public transport, and became fearful of being in crowded enclosed spaces, such as restaurants and cafes. This was a natural result of the horrific scene they lived through at the hands of terrorists whose bombings claimed the lives of thousands. Yet counter to this growing fear rose another approach that insisted that the correct response to terrorism is for people to continue practicing their normal lives, with caution, but without fear. They would not let fear prevail by depriving them from enjoying their daily freedoms. Thus giving Al Qaeda and the rest of the terrorists what they want; a retreat as a reaction to their threats. Ultimately Americans were drawn to the second approach of not succumbing to the main goal of extremism and terrorism which is the confiscation of the freedom of others through intimidation and threats. American society stuck to their freedoms and did not hide in burrows. They even began resisting and fighting government sectors that eavesdrop on people under the pretext of pursuing Al Qaeda.
What is happening in our society is also terrorism; an innovation occurs or rights are about to be given to some minority, and this sets off a small group to threaten to use violence to derail the project and imprison society in their extremism. These extremists intimidate people into not exercising their natural lives. In fact, the aims of most extremists do not focus on their own practices and rights, but on suppressing the rights and freedoms of others. In the name of reorganizing society according to their vision, they kill a group of people to subject the rest of society to fear. They would even destroy a place of worship in order to ensure people do not exercise their religious freedom.
Last April a judge sentenced a US marine, convicted of burning an Ohio mosque’s rugs, to 20 years. The marine committed the arson to revenge the American soldiers who were killed and injured at the hands of Muslims. But the judge in his ruling responded to the marine’s justifications, saying that the perpetrators of hate crimes like him want to destroy what is beyond buildings. They are targeting their way of life. The judge went on to state that their freedom is greater than this man’s hatred. The Egyptian writer Amr Ezzat remarked on this judge’s statement, saying that you will not find the last phrase in the preamble of any Egyptian court’s rulings on one of the aggressors on churches or even mosques that were assaulted or subjected to arson or even those that were partly or completely demolished.
It is true that you will not find in our courts sufficient provisions to deter those who threaten and terrorize others from exercising their everyday lives and freedoms because the rights and freedoms guaranteed to every human being are not instilled in our culture, nor our interpretation of religion, and of course are not protected by our laws. Thus it becomes easy to subject society as a whole to the mob’s threats of violence against exercising our natural freedoms.
Let’s look around and see how many innovations have we stalled and how many freedoms have we deprived people of through the terrorism of a violent group of extremists. We can be cautious of their threats but we cannot hold society hostage for decades during which they are not allowed to practice their natural lives and take advantage of modern technologies. These extremist are the ones who should go hide in their burrows instead of holding us in a burrow of fear.
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